Council proposing to raise tax bill by 3%

COUNTY HALL SAYS £46 MILLION IN SAVINGS TO BE IDENTIFIED

THE county component of council tax bills looks set to rise by 3 per cent next year.

Councillor Lee Breckon, lead member for resources at County Hall, said he knows the rise will hit people in the pocket, but the authority needs to make £100 million of savings – with £46 million of it still to find.

The impact of the pandemic, rising inflation and additional costs of caring for vulnerable people have been blamed for the increase – as well as the authority being among the worst funded in the country.

But Coun Breckon said the rise, which is in the authority’s 20222026 budget proposal, would equate to 4p a day for the average household.

He said: “I think we certainly know how hard this is for people and we understand the cost of living crisis.

“All we can say is the council tax pays for essential services. It helps us care for vulnerable adults and children. I think really just the key thing is, it equates to £1.20 a month, which is 4p a day.

“That’s not making light of it because obviously what we don’t want to do is increase the cost of living for hard-pressed Leicestershire families but that is where we’re at.”

From the overall 3 per cent rise, the council is looking to put 2 per cent into its core precept, the part of the bill spread across various services, while the remaining 1 per cent would go towards adult social care.

He said the council is confident it can balance the books next year, but is finding it difficult to make further savings on top of the £54 million identified so far.

He said the ruling Tory administration will do everything it can to avoid having to make cuts to services to make up the shortfall.

“The numbers we are looking at are stark and worrying,” he said.

“While we can balance our budget next year, after that it becomes increasingly challenging.

“The demand for social care for our vulnerable residents grows year after year and the cost of providing that care has increased.

“Special educational needs funding continues to be insufficient and represents one of the council’s biggest financial risks.

“I think we have to maintain the services that the public rely on and that’s always our priority.

“We have managed our finances carefully in the recent years and, with the position that we’re in, we do not anticipate large service reductions.

“Service reductions will only be explored when every other avenue has been considered because part of our brief as a local authority is we have statutory duties to deliver and that is what we’re very proud of delivering.

“Every department has been looked at. We go through a process here which we do very thoroughly.”

Coun Breckon said it would not be “all doom and gloom”, however.

“For highways, we’ve announced another £11 million to invest in the current network, for maintenance and new schemes,” he said.

“On top of this we need our fair funding campaign. We’ve rebooted it as the F20.

“The F20 Councils (the 20 lowestfunded councils in the country) are in the process of lobbying the government and are looking to involve their MPs. “If we had that funding that we’re asking for as the lowest-funded authorities, it would cover the deficits at the end of the four-year term.

“It’s a figure of over 40 billion and that is our shortfall. The system should be much fairer.

“Obviously, that is why we as an authority are so lowly funded because it isn’t fair. It’s out of date.”

The council’s cabinet is set to approve a two-month public consultation on its Medium Term Financial Strategy.

The proposals will also be debated by councillors through the scrutiny process before being voted on by the full council, on February 23, after a public consultation.